The New Kitchen Garden

The new kitchen garden is slowly taking shape and starting to deliver on daily fresh ingredients.

The first four raised beds went in two months ago, just before the coop and run were delivered. I planned to immediately add four more after the install. But watering, in our current dry conditions, consumed most of my available gardening time.

Bone dry soil also made made fruit tree planting more time consuming. I had to resort to triage mulching (covering just enough area to keep feeder roots from dehydration). But all fruits are now in — including the colonnade apple mini-orchard I added to my garden plan last minute.

Hopefully, within the next week or so, I’ll finish mulching and add in some flowers. Then, I’ll get back on track adding more beds.

Even half finished and noticeably under construction, this area is blossoming into a beautiful, welcoming, and nourishing kitchen garden. And to be honest, part of the delays were caused by the 22 darling little distractions occupying the new coop.

My main motivation for starting a new flock is to convert garden scraps and dinner leftovers into manure-based compost for long-term garden fertility. But I had forgotten how much fun raising chicks and interacting with heritage breeds can be! Crevecoeurs, Buff Orpingtons, Silver Grey Dorkings, Speckled Sussexes, Cochins, and Dominiques have been filling up my coop, heart, and calendar quite a bit lately.

At five weeks old, these practically pullets were large (and precocious) enough that I was able to open the door to the run and bring up Uncle Woodford from our old garden.

My sweet pet turkey (of almost 11 years) is now quite content ruling this roost and acting as the wizened elder for this fine-feathered new flock.

Watering woes aside, I am thoroughly enjoying our extended cool and low humidity conditions which have contributed to an amazing stand of fava beans, giant spinach heads, and overly abundant come and cut lettuce. These personal faves are growing more profusely for me up here than in my prior gardens.

A kitchen garden isn’t a vegetable garden. It’s a vegetable, fruit, herb, flowers, and more garden meant for daily harvesting. So, this started garden has a long way to go to fulfill it’s intended purpose.

But is off to a really promising start. It’s already our only source for salad and sauteed greens. French tarragon, hyssop, savory, rosemary, thyme, lemon grass, and oregano are all sizing up and offering mini-harvests. Root veggies – beets, turnips, daikon – are coming soon. And the peas are finally podding for our first legume harvest. Onionss, tomatoes, peppers, egg plant, basil, and squashes are in and in track for July results.

It will be a while before the persimmons, pawpaws, apples, plums, Asian pears, gooseberry, jostaberry, figs, grapes, peaches, and more that we planted will start delivering on staggard, seasonal harvests from June through October. But in the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying watching them leaf and settle in as I make my way out to see my coop cuties.